Thursday, March 24, 2005

Conservatives forcing their ideology on teachers

31% say they "feel pressured to include creationism, Intelligent Design, or other alternatives to evolution in their science classroom." More of the pressure comes from students (22%) and parents (20%.)30% agree that "they feel pushed to de-emphasize or omit evolution or evolution-related topics from their curriculum."85% say they did "feel well prepared to explain the reasons why it is important for students to understand evolution." 11% said they did not.74% disagree, while about 19% agree, when asked if "they must de-emphasize or omit from their lessons the term 'evolution' so as not to draw attention to it."

This isn't teachers trying not to teach evolution, this is teachers feeling political pressure not to teach science. One teacher in 3 feels pressure to teach false alternatives, and 1 in 5 feel pressure not to teach the science, at least not in depth.